DAY #2........

SEINÄJOKIE ..... TO...... HAPARANDA, SWEDEN

AND BACK TO KEMI, FINLAND

We left Seinäjoki this morning with snow falling and roads around town not good. Met by these two friendly 'guys' on the outskirts of town.

And these 'friendly' little reminders every few kilometers all day long!!

To be followed up by 'THE CAMERA'.....never knowing if there were real cameras inside the box or not. But, we didn't want a ticket to find out!

We stopped in Kokkola to find the LDS Church there and to fill up our gas tank. The church looked like it needed some snow shoveled! And the gas station was right across the street! Lucky us!

We saw these cute little buildings out in the middle of fields. They reminded me of 'tobacco barns' from my up-bringing years in North Carolina.

We had used the windshield washers so much that we ran out of washer fluid. The windows got so bad we stopped and Wayne 'washed' the windows (front and back) with snow. Great husband!! :-)

We headed over toward Tornio so we could cross over into Sweden. We went to Rovaniemi last September.

And we crossed the beautiful river (although it was completely frozen) into Sweden.

These types of sled seemed to be the mode of transportation, especially for the older generation....like us! They are actually pretty cool little things!

We 'found' a park with a lot of snow and ice sculptures. They were really neat and very large.

Wayne sits in 'his' chair for his picture......

while I talk on 'my' phone for my picture.

And then it was back to Finland so we could see the Snow Castle before it got too dark.

We arrived back in Kemi at the Snow Castle about 5:00 p.m. as the sun was beginning to set.

We asked a person who was coming out of the castle if they would take our picture as we were going in.

And we climbed up to the 'observation tower' to have our picture taken there with the sun setting in the background.

Wayne sitting inside the restaurant. NO we did not eat there because we needed to have a reservation TWO DAYS in advance. You see, since they have no kitchen on the premises (that would create too much heat and cause the restaurant to melt now wouldn't it!) they have to order the food prepared and brought in. We did not have a reservation. Nor did we have a reservation to stay in the Snow Castle Hotelli!! They would have provided us with very heavy down sleepers!! No Thanks.....EI KIITOS.....I will sleep in a nice warm bed tonight!

We are off tomorrow for our 4-hour cruise on the Sampo Icebreaker!